"Friday Night Lights" parents face family woes

Lesley Goldberg

3 Min Read

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - “Friday Night Lights” actress Connie Britton says her character will face major domestic problems on the acclaimed football drama, which begins its fifth and final season Wednesday on DirecTV.

“We see Tami and Coach (Taylor, played by Kyle Chandler) struggle with a few very powerful issues, one involving (rebellious daughter) Julie (Aimee Teegarden), who comes back from college with some issues,” says Britton, who was Emmy-nominated for her role.

“Then the other between the two of them and an issue that calls things in their marriage to question.”

Tami Taylor returns to East Dillon High this season as a guidance counselor.

“Tami has been moved down a few rungs and is dealing with what she wanted to deal with, which is a school situation that was very much in need of help and her services,” Britton says. “I end up getting to do a lot of interesting things in the context of that during the course of the season.”

After filming the final scene about four months ago, Britton teases that the path of the fifth season changes considerably from where the series ends up 13 episodes later: “Where we started was very different from where we ended.”

With original cast members Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen), Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) and Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette) set to return for guest stints this season, Britton says the series wrapped in a way that felt right.

”The final scene we shot was not actually the final scene of the show,“ Britton says. ”It was the last scene that we shot ever and it just happened to be in this big beautiful open Texas field at sunset and all these people flew in -- a bunch of the writers, (creator) Peter Berg and (producer) David Nevins and all the people who have been involved with the creation of the show from the beginning -- and gathered in this big open field and watched the final scene be performed and as the sun went down.

“It really felt like a defining ‘Friday Night Lights’ moment. Then we all got to stand around and do little speeches and cry a little bit then go have a party. It was great.”